Future of Kosovo: Achieving Peace and Stability in the Balkans
On 22 July 2010, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Kosovo’s declaration of independence was not in violation ofinternational law. This decision is bound to have overreaching implications for peace and stability in the region and in the immediate vicinity ofKosovo. On the one hand, this decision might help Serbia to come into terms with the facts on the ground and look for a compromise with Kosovo. Slowly but surely Kosovo also begins to recognize Serbia as the one that holds the key to further recognition and UN membership as the number of nations that have recognized Kosovo stagnates at 69. On the down side, this decision might trigger secessionist tendencies in Bosnia Herzegovina and lead to the deepening of the political crisis ofthe past five years. What are the options on the ground to provide a permanent solution to the lingering unknown in the Western Balkans?
Panelists:
Daniel Serwer (USIP)
Charles A. Kupchan (CFR)
Ulas Doga Eralp (Sabanci University)
Moderator:
Nuh Yilmaz (SETA DC)
Biographies:
Daniel P. Serwer is vice president of the Centers of Innovation at the U.S. Institute of Peace. He leads the Institute’s Centers of Innovation in rule of law, religion and peacemaking, sustainable economies, media and conflict, and science, technology and peacebuilding. Serwer has worked on preventing interethnic and interreligious conflict in Iraq and he has been deeply engaged in facilitating dialogue between Serbs and Albanians. He came to the Institute as a senior fellow working on Balkan regional security in 1998-1999. Before that, he was a minister-counselor at the Department of State, where he won six performance awards. As State Department director of European and Canadian analysis in 1996-1997, he supervised the analysts who tracked Bosnia and Dayton implementation as well as the deterioration of the security situation in Albania and Kosovo. Serwer served from 1994 to 1996 as U.S. special envoy and coordinator for the Bosnian Federation, mediating between Croats and Muslims and negotiating the first agreement reached at the Dayton peace talks. From 1990 to 1993, he was deputy chief of mission and chargé d’affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Rome, where he led a major diplomatic mission through the end of the Cold War and the first Gulf War.
Charles A. Kupchan is Whitney Shepardson senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). He is also professor of international affairs at the Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. Dr. Kupchan was director for European affairs at the National Security Council (NSC) during the first Clinton administration. Before joining the NSC, he worked in the U.S. Department of State on the policy planning staff. Prior to government service, he was an assistant professor of politics at Princeton University. He is the author of The End of the American Era: U.S. Foreign Policy and the Geopolitics of the Twenty-first Century (2002), Power in Transition: The Peaceful Change of International Order (2001), Civic Engagement in the Atlantic Community (1999), Atlantic Security: Contending Visions (1998), Nationalism and Nationalities in the New Europe (1995), The Vulnerability of Empire (1994), The Persian Gulf and the West (1987), and numerous articles on international and strategic affairs. His latest book is How Enemies Become Friends: The Sources of Stable Peace (Princeton University Press, 2010). Dr. Kupchan received a BA from Harvard University and MPhil and DPhil degrees from Oxford University. He has served as a visiting scholar at Harvard University’s Center for International Affairs, Columbia University’s Institute for War and Peace Studies, the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, the Centre d’Étude et de Recherches Internationales in Paris, and the Institute for International Policy Studies in Tokyo.
Ulas Doga Eralp is Assistant Professor at Sabanci University and Fellow at the SETA Foundation, Ankara. His new book “European Union in Bosnia Herzegovina and in Kosovo: An Actor of Peace?” is forthcoming by Lexington Books in 2011. He is the author of a number of articles and book chapters on the Western Balkans, Cyprus and Turkey. He has recently published a policy brief, “Turkey and Bosnia-Herzegovina: A Future Reflecting on the Past” with the SETA Foundation. Dr. Eralp received his BA in Business Administration from Koc University in Istanbul, MA in Polticial Science from Sabanci University in Istanbul, and PhD from George Mason University at the Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution. His expertise areas are: Western Balkans, EU Foreign Policy, Conflict Resolution, Cyprus, Peacekeeping, Human Rights Regimes, and Democratization.
Nuh Yilmaz is the Director at the SETA Foundation at Washington DC. Yilmaz has widely published on Turkey’s new foreign policy orientations, U.S. foreign policy, Turkish politics, energy security, Turkish-American relations, and is a frequent commentator for the Turkish media on these topics. He has served as the instructor for various University courses on aesthetics, critical theory, as well as Turkish Politics in the US and in Canada. Mr. Yilmaz received his BS in Sociology from Middle East Technical University (METU) in Ankara, and completed his M.F.A in Graphic Design from Bilkent University. He is currently pursuing a doctoral degree at George Mason University’s Cultural Studies Program. Yilmaz currently serves as the Washington Bureau Chief for Turkish TV channel, ATV. Mr. Yilmaz has served as the Washington representative for Turkish media outlets STAR, 24 Haber, and CNNTürk. He also contributes to a weekly column at USASabah. His comments and writings have been featured by major media outlets including Al-Jazeera English and Arabic, BBC, Washington Times, and Foreign Policy.
